The long-range goal of the proposed MBRS SCORE Program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo is to help increase the competitiveness of the university's biomedical research enterprise relative to other universities. The SCORE Program seeks to provide an improved research environment throughout the university by building research capability, enhancing faculty skills in conducting research, and involving minority undergraduate students in that research. The research subprojects proposed here will assist the university in developing its research enterprise and in the training of students for post-graduate study in the biomedical sciences. Our specific objectives in the four year period of this proposed program are to: (1) double the number of investigator-initiated research grants in the biomedical sciences and the dollar amount of such grant awards and (2) to increase the scholarly productivity of faculty funded by the MBRS SCORE Program from 1.2 peer-reviewed articles per year to 1.8 per year. The current proposal is broad in scope, containing ten subprojects and two pilot projects with investigators from eight different disciplines, including anthropology, biology, business, chemistry, marine science, philosophy and psychology. The subprojects encompass a broad spectrum of health issues including women's health, depression, mental health, respiratory illnesses, medical ethics, aging, neurology, toxicology, and the chemistry of oxygen binding sites. Several of the subprojects make use of the special features of Hawaii including its highly diverse population and unique natural environment.